Editor’s note: The error referenced in this column was corrected prior to publication in the Portales News-Tribune. Many readers are probably sitting around right this moment wondering what it is like to be a newspaper columnist. Oh, wait a minute. You are not sitting around right this moment wondering what it’s like to be a […]

I probably haven’t bought so much as a firecracker since I was 15. So it was a little unsettling at first to order more than $10,000 worth of fireworks in my new job as Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce executive director. I love big public fireworks displays. I just never saw the sense in risking […]

Freedom New Mexico: Kevin Wilson Donald Bird is repainting the Duster at Veterans Park. He served in Vietnam, and said the weapon saved his life numerous times. Kevin Wilson Donald Bird considers the M42 Duster a life-saver, and probably as close to a friend as a machine can get. But he doesn’t consider it a […]

Glenda Price The children, probably from 4 or 5 years old to 12, sat (or lay) on the floor in front, close to the speaker — the storyteller. The grownups sat on the floor or in chairs. The audience had a speaking part in the story, which the storyteller explained. The younger kids, especially, listened […]

Say you were climbing Mt. Everest with your co-ed bowling team. You cover the last hundred yards to the summit. It takes five hours. After everyone has touched the flag pole they begin looking around and finally spot the official Tibetan Parks & Recreation A-One chemical toilet! “Whew!” says one of the climbers, “I never […]

If there is one thing my readers have taken from my column, it is probably that I still have the mentality of a 10-year-old kid when it comes to certain things, namely toys and special events. Christmas is no exception to this fact. It might sound cheesy and clich

This may surprise you, but I am quite a homebody. So much so that a more accurate term would probably be hermit. I have settled on the explanation that I don’t have much of a choice because I stay at home with the munchkins five days a week. But I’m going to come clean right […]

Sharna Johnson Once upon a time I remember rescuing a stray cat from neighborhood girls who had dressed him in doll clothes and put him in a baby stroller. From my perspective at the time, they may as well have been torturing the animal and he desperately needed my intervention. Years later dressing animals is […]

Looking back on my first few months (and probably years) as a military wife I will admit I was often confused. If you saw me with that happy but oh-so-puzzled look on my face, it was likely because you were speaking “military.” The abbreviations and acronyms are truly a language of their own and tossed […]

By Clyde Davis: Local columnist It probably started with watching the TV Land awards. A sense of nostalgia for the good old days — really not so old — just the 1980’s or ‘90s- came with the memories brought on by watching the awards. Love Boat, Night Caller, Cheers,Coach, Seinfeld and their kind were something […]

By Cannon Connections staff State environmental officials will likely keep a boil water order in place for Cannon Air Force Base through the weekend. NMED spokeswoman Marissa Bardino said Friday the order will probably be lifted Monday. In the meantime, residents of Cannon and Chavez Manor housing are still advised to boil water for five […]

Freedom New Mexico State environmental officials will likely keep a boil water order in place for Cannon Air Force Base through the weekend. NMED spokeswoman Marissa Bardino said Friday the order will probably be lifted Monday. In the meantime, residents of Cannon and Chavez Manor housing are still advised to boil water for five minutes […]

By Argen Duncan: PNT senior writer I like oatmeal, and I probably have a bunch of you putting me on your “weird” list because of it. But I think the trick to making it edible is what you put in it. Oatmeal has a lot going for it: • It’s cheap. • It’s warm. • […]

By Karl Terry: Freedom Columnist I probably won’t watch the Academy Awards tonight but I do have a favorite for Best Picture. “Avatar” has my vote. To establish my immense credibility as a movie reviewer here, I’ve only seen two of the nominated movies but I feel pretty safe in making this call. If you […]

By Karl Terry: PNT columnist I could probably count the number of times on one hand I’ve actually been off on Memorial Day or one of the other three-day weekend holidays. Over the years I’ve worked at the newspaper on Memorial Day. Even

Freedom New Mexico You might say the new quasi agreement with North Korea amounts to kicking the can down the road, and you might be right. But kicking the can down the road to be handled by the next administration is probably a less-worse outcome than continuing a strictly confrontational approach to the “hermit kingdom” […]

By Kevin Wilson: Freedom New Mexico I never have and probably never will meet Chris Jones, but the man has inspired me in his “Complaints: Football Coaches” column.“I’m not sure when, exactly,” Jones wrote in this month’s Esquire, “Motorola headsets started coming with a license to act like” a word which I will replace with […]

Editorial There’s a certain air of second-guessing from people who, quite frankly, are not in a strong position to be able to say “I told you so” in the 229-page report released Friday by the Senate Intelligence Committee on pre-Iraq war intelligence assessments made in January 2003. Only a few critics outside the political class […]

Editorial Think of an elected official everyone admires. It’s not so easy, is it? Now try George Washington. Twice unanimously elected by the Electoral College, the first U.S. president probably comes closest to universal admiration. Others like Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt (either one), Kennedy and Reagan have sizable constituencies with axes to grind, or worse. First […]